Pope v. State
| Citation | 158 Miss. 794,131 So. 264 |
| Decision Date | 01 December 1930 |
| Docket Number | 28875 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi |
| Parties | POPE et al. v. STATE |
APPEAL from circuit court of Prentiss county, HON. C. P. LONG Judge.
Eugene Pope and another were convicted of burglary and they appeal. Affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
F. W. Cunningham, of Booneville, and T. A. Clark, of Iuka, for appellant.
The conviction of these appellants rests solely upon their alleged confessions of guilt, as the testimony of the state failed to show an intent to take, steal and carry away any goods, which is a necessary element of burglary.
4 R. C. L., pp. 415, 428; 2 Wharton's Criminal Law (11 Ed.), sec. 1024; 9 Corpus Juris, p. 1030, sec. 51.
It is well settled by the law of England, that a voluntary and unsuspected confession of guilt, whether made in the course of conversation with private individuals, or under examination before a magistrate, is clearly sufficient to warrant a conviction wherever there is independent proof of the corpus delicti. The doctrine that the prisoner's confession, when the corpus delicti is not proved by independent testimony, is insufficient for his conviction, best accords with the solid principles of reason, and the caution which should be applied in the admission and estimate of this species of evidence.
Stringfellow v. State, 26 Miss. 157.
W. A. Shipman, Assistant Attorney-General, for the state.
The rule with regard to proof of the corpus delicti, apart from the mere confessions of the accused, proceeds upon the reason that the general fact, without which there could be no guilt, either in the accused or anyone else, must be established before anyone could be convicted of the perpetration of the alleged criminal act which caused it; as in cases of homicide, the death must be shown; in larceny, it must be proved that the goods were lost by the owner; and in arson, that the house had been burned; for otherwise, the accused might be convicted of murder, when the person alleged to be murdered was alive; or of larceny, when the owner had not lost the goods; or of arson, when the house was not burned. But when the general fact is proved, the foundation is laid, and it is competent to show by any legal and sufficient evidence, how and by whom the act was committed, and that it was done criminally.
Where by statute a person accused of crime is made a competent witness in his own behalf and one so accused testified on his preliminary examination before a committing court in the exercise of this right, such testimony may afterward on the trial of his case, be used against him.
Hill v. State, 64 Miss. 431, 1 So. 494.
Facts ascertained by reason of a confession may be considered in establishing the corpus delicti; but a confession not made in open court; or before the examining magistrate, but to an individual, uncorroborated by circumstances, and without proof aliunde, that a crime has been committed, will not justify conviction, but the corpus delicti must be proved independently of extra judicial confessions, and beyond a reasonable doubt, and without such proof of the corpus delicti, evidence of the confession is inadmissible at the trial.
Stringfellow v. State, 26 Miss. 157; Pitt v. State, 43 Miss. 472.
On the trial of a criminal case, a confession by the accused may be considered together with other evidence to establish the corpus delicti, provided such other evidence is of such character as will satisfy the mind that it is a real and not an imaginary charge the accused has confessed.
Walker v. State, 127 Miss. 246, 89 So. 921; Patterson v. State, 127 Miss. 256, 90 So. 2; Garner v. State, 132 Miss. 815, 96 So. 743.
The appellants were indicted, tried, and convicted of the crime of burglary; the burglary being alleged and shown to be of the storehouse of the Booneville Hardware Company, a corporation.
It is contended by the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Keeton v. State
...v. State, 127 Miss. 256, 90 So. 2; Garner v. State, 132 Miss. 815, 96 So. 743; Crabb v. State, 152 Miss. 602, 120 So. 569; Pope v. State, 158 Miss. 794, 131 So. 264; Perkins v. State, 160 Miss. 720, 135 So. Whittaker v. State, 169 Miss. 517, 142 So. 474. At page 27 of the record appears an ......
-
Warren v. State
... ... 243; Tyler v. State, 159 Miss. 223, 131 ... So. 417. [174 Miss. 67] ... We ... doubt if the corpus delicti in this case was proved ... independent of the confessions, so-called ... 14a C ... J. 1425; Pitts case, 43 Miss. 472.; Heard v. State, ... 59 Miss. 545; Pope v. State, 158 Miss. 794, 131 So ... 264; Sam v. State, 33 Miss. 347; Sykes v ... State, 157 Miss. 600, 128 So. 753; Butler v ... State, 129 Miss. 778, 93 So. 3; Walker v. State, 140 ... Miss. 238, 105 So. 497 ... The ... constitutional guaranty of an impartial trial is enforced ... ...
-
Perkins v. State
...confidence thereon to be satisfied that it is a real and not an imaginary crime which this appellant has confessed." In Pope v. State, 158 Miss. 794, 131 So. 264, 265, court, in discussing the question as to the sufficiency of the evidence aliunde the confession of the defendant to show tha......
-
Gunter v. State
... ... beyond a reasonable doubt, then the corpus delicti was ... sufficiently proved to admit the confession. There must be ... proof aliunde the confession, but it need only be slight ... Heard ... v. State, 59 Miss. 545; Perkins v. State, 160 ... Miss. 720, 135 So. 357; Pope v. State, 158 Miss ... 794, 131 So. 264; Whittaker v. State, 169 Miss. 517, ... 142 So. 474; Keeton v. State, 167 So. 68, 175 Miss ... 631; Nichols v. State, 165 Miss. 114, 145 So. 903; ... Garner v. State, 132 Miss. 815, 96 So. 743; ... Patterson v. State, 127 Miss. 256, 90 So. 2; ... ...